DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

Genus:

Next in line is the Genus rig. A lot of their ads popped up on various video sites all over the net recently. That’s also how they got our attention, and we really wanted to know what all the buzz is about. They were very friendly, and sent over half their arsenal of products. We were literally drowning in Styrofoam and boxes. They seem to have a lot of trust in their products and they have some good ideas for improvements, like a small mirror box that can be attached to the LCD ,so you can see it from atop, or from the sides. We hear they’re also doing seminars on shooting with a DSLR. We like their drive.

Unfortunately Genus doesn’t have a follow focus unit for review yet, so all we got was the mattebox and baseplate. We still want to show you how it performed in our tests.

Here we reviewed:

• GWMC and GFFW Matte box
• GMB/DSLR Base plate

The Genus base plate is very simply crafted. At less than half the price we say that’s OK, and it still does what a DSLR base plate should do, just lock the camera onto the rails.
The screws that hold the rails are good. You don’t need much force, and they will hold the rails tight enough, not super tight like Arri, but tight enough.

We would call the overall quality, a little better than mediocre as filmmakers. The whole thing isn’t much lighter than the Chrosziel base plate but just a little less rugged than we’d like. This will affect the overall stability of the rig, and the parts are more sensitive to abuse. For a few bucks more, we would have liked Genus to make this unit just a little stronger.

Unlike on all other units we tested,(except D|Focus) the rubber parts that sit between the camera and base plate are a little too soft and thick, so eventually your camera will always have a bit of play. We tested this on a car rig, and the vibrations of the car were actually exaggerated, which resulted in a lot of rolling shutter wobble, while the Chrosziel base plate helped to minimize this effect by about 80%. You wouldn’t think of such a situation before buying,(but we did) but that’s every day business when you’re planning to shoot a movie. You will have to know where the limits of your gear are.

Another design problem, is the size of the screws that hold the rails. When you have a follow focus sit right next to them, you will most likely, not be able to open these without having to move your follow focus away first.

We like that they incorporated a handle on the ¼-inch screw like Arri, Chrosziel, and Redrock, so the camera can be attached without a screwdriver, or coin. Mounting the camera took about 22 seconds here.

Another thing that we felt was a problem, was that there very little space underneath the camera, less than on most other units. You can see in the picture, that although the camera sits at the very front, there is not much space for a follow focus when you use a small lens, it will manage to miss the focus gear by a millimeter. If you can’t afford a higher priced base plate, you’ll most likely also use a lower priced follow focus unit, which usually has the gear at only one side, and then it might become impossible to fit it into that little space, or you’ll have to turn the follow focus around, and use it with your other hand, which might eventually destroy the whole idea of your setup.

This issue makes it hard to recommend this base plate for DSLR use. If you don’t use small lenses, or if you have a flexible follow focus unit, you might still consider the Genus base plate, since it’s not expensive.